I have always used a PCI-based recording device but need to upgrade. I have read lots of posts on the broad range of PCI cards (Link) as well as USB / Firewire based devices.
Obviously, if I dont like having lots of cables handing out of my computer an external device is a better option, and from everything I have read, a lot of them (Edirol, E-MU and M-Audio) all look like they don't suffer from latency issues when recording which is great. However, how do these external boxes function in terms of standard sound-card jobs like playback, eq and the like?
Is a USB device a straight replacement for your on-board sound card? Under what circumstances would you chose to have both?
Cheers
Obviously, if I dont like having lots of cables handing out of my computer an external device is a better option, and from everything I have read, a lot of them (Edirol, E-MU and M-Audio) all look like they don't suffer from latency issues when recording which is great. However, how do these external boxes function in terms of standard sound-card jobs like playback, eq and the like?
Is a USB device a straight replacement for your on-board sound card? Under what circumstances would you chose to have both?
Cheers